suraj.sun writes: One spark of hope to the people and organizations that oppose cyberspying bill CISPA was that in the list of 28 corporate sponsors (including Facebook), Google was nowhere to be seen. But now CISPA’s author Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) has bragged that Google had, in fact, quietly worked with the bill’s authors behind the scenes. According to Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and number-one fan for the execution of Wikileaks whisteblower Bradley Manning — Google is “very supportive” of CISPA.

CISPA has been nicknamed “SOPA 2 but is more accurately described as a setup to wipe out decades of consumer privacy protections, giving the US government unprecedented access to individuals’ online data and communications. Now it seems we know where Google stands, too. The bill primarily protects internet companies that share private data and communications with the government — it promotes digital spying on citizens without a warrant under the guise of cybersecurity. The bill’s vague language, in addition to the power it can give Homeland Security entities involved in domain shutdowns to go after sites such as Wikileaks, has had CISPA labeled as a relative to SOPA and PIPA.